Weather: Rains did little to relieve California drought

Moisture levels have been slightly below normal in Eastern Washington, and above normal in Idaho for the past several months. However, drought continues to be a concern in other parts of the world.

California received some relief late last year with periods of moderate to heavy rainfall that led to some lowland flooding. However, scientists say that “tremendous amounts of more rain” needs to fall in the Golden State to end the effects of the drought that has persisted for several years.

Conditions have been drier in California again as a ridge of high pressure has returned to the western U.S. We’ve been receiving some moisture as storm systems have been riding over the top of the ridge and into the Pacific Northwest. Despite some weekend rainfall, it appears that the drier-than-normal conditions in California should last until the last week of this month when the high pressure system is expected to weaken.

Drought has also been an issue in parts of South America. If you’re a coffee-lover, you may be paying more for your favorite blend thanks to the recent dryness in Brazil. This country is one of the biggest exporters of coffee in the world. Futures prices have risen more than 10 percent in recent weeks based on much drier-than-normal forecasts in this region through February. Prices did fall in last November due to heavy rainfall. But, dry conditions over the past four weeks have raised concerns of damage to flowering coffee trees.

In our part of the world, we should see more rain than snow as we head into the weekend. Temperatures will be a bit above normal, likely bringing rain to the valley, but more snow to the higher mountains.

But, I do see increasing snowfall in late January and early February. Overall, the rest of this winter is expected to be milder than normal with below normal snowfall totals. With the warmer-than-normal conditions, there’s also a good chance that spring will get off to an early start.